Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-qxsvm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-24T13:29:25.571Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Preparing Preservice Teachers’ Minds, Hearts and Actions for Teaching in Remote Indigenous Contexts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2015

Barry Osborne*
Affiliation:
School of Education, James Cook University, PO Box 6811, Cairns, Queensland, 4870, Australia
Get access

Abstract

This paper examines some challenges we confront working with preservice teachers prior to serving in remote Indigenous communities. Some challenges include what preservice teachers bring to their studies - subjectivities, experiential understandings of teaching and notions of childhood/adolescence, culture and social justice, all of which involve minds, emotions and our notions of our places in society. Some challenges involve linking new notions of teaching to what they already know which may entail unlearning before relearning. Some challenges involve making sense of the theory/action dialectic - teasing out links between strongly held but unarticulated values, beliefs and actions that derive from them. Some challenges involve anticipating what it might be like to live and teach in a remote setting and preparing to work effectively across cultures. I then discuss how we might tackle them in the light of productive pedagogy and culturally relevant pedagogy (Osborne, 2001a, 2001b).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Coleman, J., Campbell, E., Hobson, C., McPartland, J., Mood, A., Weinfield, F., et al. (1966). Equality of educational opportunity. Washington, DC: Superintendent of documents, U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Connell, R.W. (1993). Schools and social justice. Leichhardt, NSW: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Connell, R.W. (1996). Schools, markets, justice: Education in a fractured world. Academy of Social Science, Newsletter, 15(4), 4655.Google Scholar
Crowther, F., Andrews, D., Dawson, M., & Lewis, M. (2001). Innovative designs for enhancing achievement in schools. Brisbane: University of Southern Queensland and Education Queensland.Google Scholar
Denzin, N. (1984). On understanding emotion. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
DETYA. (2000). The national Indigenous English literacy and numeracy strategy 2000-2004. Canberra: Commonwealth Government of Australia.Google Scholar
Dinan-Thompson, M. (2001). Teachers facing Health and Physical Education curriculum changes: A kaleidoscope of beliefs, values, emotions and interactions. The ACPHER Healthy Lifestyles Journal, 48(1), 912.Google Scholar
Education Queensland. (1999a). State education 2010. Brisbane: Education Queensland.Google Scholar
Education Queensland. (1999b). Partners for Success: Strategy for the continuous improvement of education and employment outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Queensland. Education Queensland.Google Scholar
Freire, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Gewirtz, S. (2001). Rethinking social justice: A conceptual analysis. In Demaine, J. (Ed.), Sociology of education today (pp. 4964). Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Gibson, L. (1998). Teaching as an encounter with self: Unraveling the personal mix of personal beliefs, education ideologies and pedagogical practices. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 29(3), 360371.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Good, T.L., Biddle, B.J., & Brophy, J.E. (1975). Teachers make a difference. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Good, T.L., & Brophy, J.E., (1973). Looking in classrooms. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Hargreaves, A. (1977). Rethinking educational change with heart and mind. Alexandria, VA: Association of Curriculum and Development.Google Scholar
Hatton, E. (1996). Dealing with diversity: The failure of teacher education. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 17(1), 2542.Google Scholar
Kalantzis, M., Cope, B., Noble, G., & Poynting, S. (1990). Cultures of schooling: Pedagogies for cultural difference and social access. London: Falmer Press.Google Scholar
Klein, M., (2001a). Solving “division” problems: The construction of implicit and explicit knowledges. In Allen, J. (Ed.), Sociology of education: Possibilities and practices. (2nd ed., pp. 127149). Katoomba, NSW:: Social Science Press.Google Scholar
Klein, M. (2001b). Constructivist practice, pre-service teacher education and change: The limitations of appealing to hearts and minds. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 7(3), 257269.Google Scholar
Ladson-Billings, G. (1992a). Culturally relevant teaching: The key to making multi-cultural education work. In Grant, C. (Ed.), Research and multicultural education: From the margin to the mainstream. (pp. 106121). Bristol, PA: Falmer Press.Google Scholar
Ladson-Billings, G. (1992b). Liberatory consequences of literacy: A case of culturally relevant instruction for African American students. Journal of Negro Education, 61(2), 378391.Google Scholar
Ladson-Billings, G. (1992c). Reading between the lines and beyond the pages: A culturally relevant approach to literacy teaching. Theory into Practice, 31(4), 312320.Google Scholar
Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers: Successful teaching for African American students. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.Google Scholar
Ladwig, J., Lingard, R., Mills, M., Luke, A., & Hayes, D. (1999). School reform longitudinal study (SRLS). Unpublished report. The University of Queensland and Education Queensland, Brisbane.Google Scholar
Malin, M. (1990). Why is life so hard for Aboriginal students in urban classrooms? The Aboriginal Child at School, 18(1), 929.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nakata, M.N. (2001). Another window on reality: A Torres Strait Islander’s story of a search for “better” education. In Osborne, B. (Ed.), Teaching, diversity and democracy (pp. 331353). Altona, VIC: Common Ground.Google Scholar
Newmann, F., & Wehlage, G. (1995). Successful school restructuring: A report to the public and educators. Madison, WI: Centre on Organization and Restructuring Schools, University of Wisconsin-Madison.Google Scholar
Osborne, A.B. (1988). Teachers’ initial perceptions of teaching at Thursday Island State High School. Queensland Educational Researcher, 4(2), 4566.Google Scholar
Osborne, A.B. (1994). The strangler fig: Teacher education, social justice and ethnically marginalised students. Paper presented at AARE Conference, Newscastle, 27 November-1 December.Google Scholar
Osborne, A.B. (1996). Practice into theory into practice: Culturally relevant pedagogy for students we have marginalized and normalized. Anthropobgy and Education Quarterly, 27(3), 285314.Google Scholar
Osborne, A.B. (Ed.). (2001a). Teaching, diversity and democracy. Altona, VIC: Common Ground.Google Scholar
Osborne, A.B. (2001b). Productive pedagogies meets culturally relevant pedagogy. Paper presented at Successful Futures: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Symposium, Cairns, 9-12 April.Google Scholar
Osborne, A.B., & Singh, M. (2001). Teachers’ work and reform in context. In Osborne, B. (Ed.), Teaching, diversity and democracy (pp. 291330). Altona, VIC: Common Ground.Google Scholar
Singh, M., & Osborne, A.B. (2001). Reforming curriculum content for participatory democracy. In Osborne, B. (Ed.), eaching, diversity and democracy (pp.205259). Altona, VIC: Common Ground.Google Scholar
Weiler, K. (1988). Women teaching for change. New York: Bergin & Garvey.Google Scholar